NORTH WALES EVENT AUGUST 2003

Pathfinder in North Wales was a new location for us. The original idea was to base ourselves on the north coast or on Anglesey. However it proved difficult to find a marina with all states of the tide access (and swinging moorings were discounted at that time of the year due to a number of regattas taking most available places) so we moved slightly south to Pwllheli which offered full services and access onto Cardigan Bay.

Road access to Pwllheli is good but it is a long way, 370 miles from my place on the South Coast. It is however one of those places that once there makes the rest of the world seem less important and the travelling worthwhile (very much like our other venue Neyland in South Wales).

Len and Steve in Brinsmead and Parky in Due Diligence arrived on Friday night and met up for supper in the clubhouse leaving boat launching until the Saturday morning.
We were advised to launch early as the commercial slip becomes very busy and the tractor operatives wait for no man when launching the 100+ sports boats that are dry stored on trailers (the marina itself is mainly occupied by large luxury craft). This was good advice, we launched at 8.00 am, by mid morning the slip was frenetic with boats being put in two at a time down the slip with more queued up behind (some coming down the slip with engines and props already turning !).
The main users of this service are people from Liverpool and Manchester who come out to Pwllheli in droves during the summer for the weekend, the whole area was jammed with boats / PWCs on trailers. Interesting to note that despite all these boats we found it difficult to spot a lifejacket or radio anywhere.
In the evening the slip was equally active with the recovery operation, boats waiting the best part of an hour for their turn to be recovered. We spent a happy time watching all those people making a hash of driving onto the trailers and thinking “there but for the grace of God go I”.
Nick Allen with Caroline and Victoria in Manic Moment were due to join us late on Saturday. This would be the first time out for their boat this year after an engine rebuild, brave man coming all the way to Wales for his shakedown. However the job must have been done by a failed marine mechanic as it all worked perfectly.

The two RIBs went out on Saturday to a glorious day with a fast run along the mountainous coastline west to Bardsey Island where we anchored up for lunch with the seals. A slight problem when it came to leave as both boats were anchored off Parky’s anchor and it was well and truly stuck. Steve was volunteered by Len to swim down and free it. Steve duly stripped off and started to dangle his feet in the water, a slight nudge from Len and he was in !! But free the anchor he did, watched by some somewhat puzzled seals. Another 30 knot run right round the island and back to the marina to meet up with Nick and family to complete a round trip of some 50 miles.

Again a early launch on Sunday morning for Manic Moment and we ran west along the coast but the weather turned a bit nasty with fog coming in off the Irish Sea so we skipped back into the bay and travelled east to Porth Madog before returning home.

Monday we again tried to take Manic Moment to Bardsey and this time we made it but some of the conditions were “challenging” when rounding the headlands and meeting the North Westerly winds. During the day we spotted literally hundreds of colourful yachts out for the regatta of Wales and on the return leg watched a fisheries protection vessel recover its RIB up a ramp at the stern whilst under way, very 007 and Due Diligence was inclined to ask if they had room for one more.

In the evening Len decided that his trailer needed some attention and called Seastart trailer rescue, which he had recently joined, and a very very nice (Welsh) man came and fixed it.

Tuesday dawned a magnificent day (must be so as some of the “gin palaces” actually moved off their moorings and out of the marina; one did however go well aground in the harbour entrance !).
Off to Aberystwyth with a flat sea and brilliant sunshine, arriving early afternoon. We were unable, due to low tide, to get the boats into the harbour so after a conversation with the harbour master anchored up off the entrance (Parky’s anchor again, Steve at the ready) and Nick pressed his tender into service and ferried Victoria and Steve into the harbour. 

There then followed “the dramatic sea rescue in which Nick was snatched from the jaws of certain disaster”. On returning to collect Caroline, the engine failed in the mouth of the harbour and the tender was drifting onto the rocks. Spotting this Len and Parky fired up Brinsmead and edged inshore to affect a rescue. By this time Nick had the oars out and despite his protestations that all was well his determined rescuers insisted that he shut up and be saved from the jaws of disaster, as they wanted to do a tow. The engine was eventually restarted by jiggling with the fuel supply and Caroline was ferried into the harbour where they were charged the staggering figure of £6.50 to moor a tender for an hour or so.
The run back to base was challenging as we were now wind against tide and we were glad to gain the shelter of the bay for the last twenty minutes or so which enabled us to push the speed up to 30+ knots.

Due Diligence and Manic Moment recovered on Wednesday morning and started the run home. Brinsmead decided to stay on for at least another day.

We never did make it round to Anglesey as this was in fact a long way and with the winds from the northwest would not have been easy. However even so we did clock up just in excess of 300 miles over our short stay in this picturesque location.

Richard